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I hate this phone, it has never been really good

I really do not like this phone! My 2-year contract is almost over and I can honestly say that I cannot wait! At first this phone was really good, quick and reliable. The a couple of months later, it started becoming slow, losing it's battery life very quickly (in under a day) and freezing constantly, and also it would sometimes just reboot itself for no reason! After about a year i sent it to blackberry, hoping to get a new one that was better because my one wouldn't turn on, instead they just gave me a new battery, even though the phone still didn't work properly and the buttons would not work! It is a dry poor quality phone from blackberry.

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It's an amazing phone if you use your phone mostly for email and Bbm but other than that its average

This is the blackberry curve 9320 which was released in 2012 or 2013 if my memory serves me well. First of all you need to focus on the phones advantages: it is durable and the email service is amazing. I have dropped this phone from higher than my head and it continued to function normally, mainly because blackberry are clever in making a easy to fall off case so when the phone falls the battery falls out also which gives thee phone a lower mass. This results in less damage. The phone has Bbm for connecting with people but you still have to pay for it even though iphone and android users get it for free. If you don't know anyone that has Bbm there is a great emailing system which allows quick and responsive emails with no hassle but if none of these specs are beneficial to you then the phone isn't a very good choice.

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wouldn't suggest for people needing for more than work

The Blackberry curve 9320 was my first phone that i brought on a contract from Vodafone, where i have a really good deal for only £20.95 a month i get bbm thrown in for free as well as unlimited texting.

the phone is good for just the normal things such as texting and calling and really good at keeping you connected to the social networking sites and good if you work with your emails alot during the day as it keeps you connected without having to log in and out constantly.

But if you are looking for anything more than the basics on a phone then i wouldn't suggest buying or getting it on contract if your looking to use the internet alot!

The phone usually freezes and brings up a little timer like it's buffering which can get frustrating when you have important stuff to do. especially when its frozen for so long that you then have to take the battery out to have to reset phone.

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Average in my opinion

The phone is very good for simple things such as texting and using blackberry messenger to talk to people, but I think the phone is very poor when it comes to things such as camera, internet, apps, blackberry app world, etc. it may just be my phone, it may be like it to everyone, but my phone crashes a lot whenever I try to use my camera, web browser and other things. However, I love the blackberry messenger and texting as it is very simple and easy, as you can change the settings to how you like. The camera is good when it isn't crashing, as there are different options, such as portraits, landscapes, close-ups, flash, etc. I find that the blackberry battery power is very poor, as I have had 3 different blackberries and each have run out fairly quickly. However, I like the phone as you can use different social sites on there, from windows live messenger to twitter.

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Great if you are looking for a straightforward phone for text, email and BBM.

I bought this phone as a replacement when I broke my iPhone, and so far, I have been fairly impressed.I paid £140 for it, which seems a bit overpriced, and I wouldn't say its the best value.

The phone is easy to use and very fun. It comes in a few different colours, however the colour on mine has already started cracking, I have had it for about 6 months.

The texting and calling features work just fine, exactly as they should and I have found no problems. BBM was easy to set up and great to use as well.

The camera wasn't brilliant, fine for taking a few pictures, but nothing like that of the iPhone. The apps in the app store werent great either. I would say this Blackberry isn't for anyone looking for apps and media, but better for someone who wants to be able to text and email easily. The QWERTY keyboard is great, and makes sending texts very quick.

The phone itself is light and pretty, a nice easy phone, just don't buy if you are looking for media.

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Pretty good phone, would recommend

The first Blackberry I ever bought was the 8520 model a few years ago. At the time I thought it was pretty brilliant but I've never honestly knew much about phones!

Personally, I do prefer the 9320 model to my previous device. It's so easy to use for personal calls and messages of such.

With my old phone I never really bothered with any applications but I found it rather fun with this device ( Cost me a bomb! ) App world is also very easy to use.

One problem I always had with the 8520 was was always getting damaged too easily, and that wasn't even down to my clumsiness! The 9320 model is much more resistant to damage, scratches etc .

The camera of the phone disappointed so much when I was with the 8520. With this being said, I have never been massive with taking pictures and all, but just in case I ever feel in need to, I do somewhat like a camera where the picture quality is good and not grainy. I did expect more with the phones camera going in to the shops to buy this phone, after the terrible camera from my last BB. I hadn't read anything about the camera prior to my decision to buy this phone when it became available in stores. I was very disappointed yet again! I'm no expert in cameras whatsoever, but the 3.2 Mega-pixel camera just does not justify this phone for me.

Also, as well as the camera, the only other problem with my previous phone was the charge was ridiculous , and felt like I was charging it every 10 minutes. I did try to do my research with this device when it came down to charge, but was unsuccessful in finding any info on the phone's battery life. Again, shamefully, this was an other aspect of the phone that did not live up to my expectations or improve from the 8520.

Nevertheless, this truly is a phone I would recommend to anyone for so many different reasons, and for a decent price on Amazon of about £100, I'd personally snatch it up while you can!

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Great mulifunction phone

I have a Blackberry Curve as my work phone, therefore it has been bought on contract by the Hospital which I work and therefore I do not use the internet browsing facility on it at all, as I feel this would be an inappropriate use of Trust property. So apologies for the lack of browsing information for this review and other limitations as I only use what I need to.

What I really like about this phone is it links in directly to my work calendar so I can add meetings / appointments in whilst on the move and it automatically syncs with my normal computer network login. I had an ipaq in the past and had to physically sync the devices so having real time syncing is a huge benefit. My last work phone was the nokia smartphone and I made an earth shattering error once, I was adding some personal dates onto the phone regarding swimming lessons and needed t change to a new time, I deleted the old time and it asked did I want to delete all................so I said yes. I lost everything, plus when I got to work it was unrestoreable, I have always backed my calendar up since then.

My work email is also available, I haven't yet worked out why when I delete on the computer it still sits on my phone, despite taking it to the IT department. What I don't like is the time it takes to download attachments and I have no longer even attempt to open them on my phone.

The contacts also link to my networked computer but unlike my previous trust phone, which was a Nokia, it will actually look up contacts from the trust network. I can also add pictures / photos to those contacts if I so wish.

Theres a variety of ring tones available for free and others can be added, its also possible to add a ring tone to a particular contact. My old ring tone for my husband was "the boy does nothing" song which amused me greatly.

It has BBM facility, which I was told included in the contract, so I do use this to contact my daughter, its very easy to use and its far more like having a conversation than my previous experiences of texting. I am now adept at pinging and sending smiley faces. As many of my colleagues have the same phone, I am also able to use this with them too.

Texting is very easy, and looks like an ongoing conversation, very similar to the BBM set up.

I can ring others using the contacts alternatively I can ring extensions throughout my workplace just by dialing the extension number which is pretty impressive (IMO)

The keyboard is a qwerty type affair but the keys are quite small. The navigator button in the middle often sticks and if I had paid for this phone I would be very unimpressed with it.

It has a camera, and the pictures are of a very good quality. These can be emailed / texted elsewhere, or taken off via a network cable or stored. I believe it has a video function as well.

It has wifi functionality.

I charge it using a blackberry usb cable, with a plug adapter. My first one quite simply blew up, we heard a loud bang, the whole house electrics went out and when we got to it, there was smoke coming out and it was charred. I returned it to the IT department who returned it and I was given a new phone and charger (slight over kill I thought but was told I had to hand over the phone)

I have personalised mine, as can be very confusing at meetings with all the same phones on the table. I managed to pick up a hard case for it for a couple of pound from ebay. I also bought a glittery version for my friend for less than a fiver and my daughter (who has the previous model on contract) has a selection.

As I said, mine is a work smartphone however my daughters is very similar and is on a 24 month contract with virgin media for £11 a month with texts / calls included (sorry cant remember how many).

I really like the look of the phone, my own mobile looks pretty naff next to it.

I am giving it a 4, purely based on the rubbish navigator

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A lovely little 'phone that allows you to check the internet and e-mails

I have two mobile 'phones, one for my part-time business, which is the Blackberry. I had the Blackberry Curve 9300 for two years, and loved it. When I was due an upgrade, I didn't want to pay a great deal more than I was already paying every month, and I couldn't afford to pay for a really good new handset, so I decided I'd only go up a notch to the 9320. I should say at this point that I am absolutely anal about backing up my data, so I had already registered with Blackberry, as you can't save anything to the SIM card once it's in a Blackberry. I received the 9320 just under a week ago and have fallen in love with it, just as much as I loved the 9300. My other 'phone is a Galaxy SII, so I don't have any issue with touch screens, but the two are quite different and useful in different ways.First off, when I moved my SIM into the new handset, it automatically started transferring my data across - contacts, etc. That was such a relief, because my whole address book is saved to my Blackberry and I didn't relish the thought of having to manually re-enter it. (I really like the way the contact list lets you scroll down to see the person's address data on the BB. This alone would probably keep me with them.) So, apart from my photographs, which I'd already transferred elsewhere, everything went across. The settings and the way it works are pretty much the same as the 9300 but this one is much more updated. It allows for more apps to be downloaded, although I don't need that many on this handset. The battery life is good too - I always drain the battery completely four times when I get a new handset, and am still going through that process. I found it was pretty good on my last BB too. If you are not a BB lover, nothing I say will persuade you, but I like the fact that I can see all the e-mails in my inboxes for the last month (I find that I can only see them properly when I have a signal on my Samsung). The 9320 is much better for internet searches too (that was a complaint I had with my old one, before the software upgrades). The 9320 is a bit thinner and not quite as deep as the 9300, and is a bit lighter too. Whenever you download anything, it wants to link into BBM, but you can decline this. I've downloaded Dropbox and Evernote (two of my bit favourite apps). I can write to Evernote on this one (couldn't on the 9300) but not Dropbox (but then I can't write to existing files on my Samsung either). The games already pre-installed are different - none of them suited me but it was easy to download others. (The pre-loaded games are Brick Breaker, Word Mole, Tetris and Uno Trial.) I downloaded Flow and the solitaire games - just be careful which ones you go for, I found the first one intensely irritating because of the way it worked, but as it was free, I just uninstalled it when I found what I wanted.My old one was a lovely red, and I was reluctant to let that go, but the 9320 is made in a number of colours - black, white, hot pink, vivid violet, classic blue. I chose the pink, which is lovely. If I only had one handset, I wouldn't choose this, I'd stick with my Samsung, but

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Good phone if you're out of the office.

"light as a feather" is how my partner describes my blackberry in comparrison to her older version. But what my phone loses in weight it definitely makes up for in style.

Positives - the use of private messaging (similar to msn), emails and texts all in one place is a plus. Its easy to use the functions and is simple enough to pick up.

Negatives - Not having a touch screen element can be frustrating especially when you're having to scroll back and forth to amend or highligh a particular part of a message for example. Having said that the scroll function is very sensitive so it doesnt take too much effort just a small bug bare.Secondly if you are moving back and forth between your mobile and a laptop (say you were on train using your mobile and then you get to the office and use laptop) it can interfer with the Synchronising of the emails. Which for me has now resulted in my phone constantly showing i have an email to read when i dont. The way to fix this is to plug it in but i dont always have the time for this activity.

Overall its a good phone for to and from the office which im guessing is what its designed for. Good little phone.

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For someone that wants a cheap phone that has capabilities to do more but is a very good phone first

A phone or mobile gaming tool. Well that's what you have to ask yourself if your going to buy this phone. I found it had excellent phone capabilities and was a breeze to text, email or BBM. The downside only starts to show when you want to start playing games and building up a catalogue of apps. This phone then becomes a very mediocre device. The games are very basic looking and the good looking ones don't work too well. The apps are few and far between when it comes to ones that 'just work' and most decent ones are not free. I found this helpful for me as it meant I had very few apps and games and basically used my phone as a phone which it excels at with a good antenna, which is great as my signal around my area is awful. With a case the phone is light and durable with decent build quality but not the best. I definitely advise a screen protector as the screen is plastic and scratches easily. The keyboard is ok but not as nice as my bold. The major con I have with the phone is for some reason it sometimes (not always) scrolls up ie. when in the text conversation I will be typing and it just scrolls up all the way to the top of the conversation. I don't know what or why this happens but it does on mine.

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I would not suggest getting this phone but if you are a keen blackberry fan I guess it would suffice

Blackberry is still relying upon its 'amazing' messaging capabilities which are rapidly lagging behind its IOS and Android competitors. The overall build quality of the phone is poor, it is very plasticky but the advantage of this is that it is very light in your hand. The keyboard is cheaper than those in the bold models and when typing it makes a lot of noise, which can be annoying. The multimedia features on this phone are decent, but are the real basics in this day and age. The camera is 3.2MP which is rather poor but it is ok for a cheap phone. There is no front facing camera which was a bit disappointing. The sound quality from the 3.5mm headphone jack is quite good, as is the in call sound.

The blackberry app world is rubbish compared with Google Play or the IOS app store, but it does provide the basic must have apps such as Facebook, Twitter and Whatsapp.

The battery is a 1450mah battery which on paper at least is quite impressive but for me at least this has significantly deteriorated over the past 3 months.

Overall I would not suggest this phone. It costs around £100 on pay as you go and around £10 per month on pay monthly contracts. If you are a hardcore bb fan then it is your own decision, but if you want to try a blackberry because people have told you that they are good, ignore them and buy an android phone. As a whole this phone has disappointed me and sadly i have it for 20 months more so make sure you try out the phone properly before buying it!

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The Blackberry Curve 9320 is a nice phone, but is far from the best phone I have ever used.

I have to admit that I have never been the most technologically minded of people. To be honest I had always gone by the assumption that a phone's most important feature was that it could send and receive both calls and texts. Beyond these most basic functions I figured any extra features were just added perks. So when the time came to actually buy a new phone the sales rep was extremely confused when I explained what I wanted. In the end I decided to get a combined contract with my land-line, and the one requirement I looked for was that it 'not be a touch-screen.' The phone I eventually decided on was the Blackberry Curve 9320, which has introduced me to a number of features I would have previously never dreamed of using. Unfortunately it also came with a few drawbacks that I was ill prepared for when I first ordered it.

-The Basics -

As a basic handset this phone has a lot to love about it. At 60mm by 109mm the size of the handset was just right for me. It fit snugly in the palm of my hands without being overly small and flimsy. It also comes with a 2.44 inch screen displaying a 320X240 resolution. I was pleasantly surprised by this as I would have expected a much smaller screen given the size of the actual handset. The clarity of the screen is very sharp and as a result I was able to appreciate any photos I had taken without transferring them to my wife's Galaxy Ace. I would also like to add that the 3.2 Mega-pixel camera provides a higher quality of photo than I would usually expect from a mobile device. While I wouldn't recommend selling off your digital camera you will still be happy to keep any of those precious memories that you capture on the fly.

Beneath the screen you have a miniature keyboard that makes messaging so much easier. No longer do I have to suffer the bane of predictive messaging, as I can now type all messages as easily as I can with a full keyboard. This works for me personally, but others will feel differently. To accommodate every key the individual buttons have been made really small, so anyone with larger than average fingers will find them a nightmare. I did find that the keyboard makes entering numbers awkward though. You have to hit the 'alt' button every time you want to enter a number or symbol. This means that merely entering the days date requires you to push no less than 20 buttons.

One thing I did like about the keyboard was that the main button also works as a track-pad for navigating menus. It was a little confusing at first, but ended up being a lot more comfortable than a stick; or selection of buttons, while remaining less invasive than a touch screen.

As I have stated though, my main concern was how the Blackberry worked as a phone in itself. When I finally managed to make a call I found the sound to be nice and clear when there was enough signal, but have experienced interference a number of times. When this happens the interference is harsher than any other phone I have used. Nevertheless the phone works fine for the majority of calls, and at its best sounds as clear as my land-line. Extra credit should be given for the quality of the speaker-phone as it comes through loud and clear from the other side of the room.

Of course my other prime area of concern is with the phones ability to send texts. Actually this one really impressed me as it was the first phone to sort my texts by contact. This meant that I could instantly view a conversation tree with the person texting me without trudging through every text I had ever received. This feature came in very useful after a friend laughed at a joke I had sent them over a week prior. Although it is a bit of a pain that hitting enter automatically sends the text, as the small buttons forced me to occasionally send an incomplete message.

Personally I was also happy with the limited choice of ringtones available from the get go. Straight out of the box I could select a good old fashioned ring for my phone calls, and a discreet ping for any messages that I received. I believe I already mentioned that I am a simple fellow, and these choices fit my taste nicely.

-Extra Features -

Like I said previously the Curve has introduced me to a number of features that I would have never dreamed of using before. Some of the apps you can download for this phone are very useful for keeping records of important data. Finding them was easy, as the app browser had a very clear layout and a well defined search button. As a result I always have a backup of my important data on my phone, and can generally update the important data on the go as I always have my phone with me.

Browsing through the apps you will find a wealth of Instant Messengers available to you, including Blackberry Messenger and the world famous MSN. Personally I deleted both of those and downloaded one called Whatsap as this was the one my friends were using. Whichever one you personally select you will find these instant messengers extremely useful. It meant keeping in touch with friends without using up text messages, and also enabled me to send pictures without the usual charges associated with MMS. It also helped that the Blackberry was wi-fi enabled, so that I could piggyback most of these messages off my broadband connection rather than use up data.

Whenever I was away from home the internet remained accessible through the phones 3G connection. Being able to access useful sites on the go is always a useful feature, and depending on signal strength means getting a decent connection. Although I cannot deny that 3G is not as fast as some of the newer smart phones on the market it does the job for me.

One aspect of the online browser I particularly liked was being able to tie a number of email addresses into my Blackberry. I no longer miss important emails because I couldn't be bothered checking both accounts. Now all of my emails come straight to my phone along with every other message I receive. You can then choose whether to read these emails with your other messages, or to separate them into their separate pages. This gave me the best of both worlds. My emails were easily accessible, but it remained extremely easy to see which account they had come from.

Of course wherever the internet is brought up people are going to want to engage in this social networking nonsense. For people interested in this the Blackberry Curve comes with the standard Facebook access. I really wish I could comment on the standard of service, but you have probably noticed that I have not had any interest in social networks for a long time.

One thing to bare in mind is that the choice of games available is minimal. I really enjoy one named 'Wordmole' as it keeps my brain ticking over. However this, and a fairly tedious version of Breakout were all that was available out of the box. There is a selection of other games available for download, but the ones I have played have been fairly basic games like Solitaire. To be perfectly frank this is not a phone designed for playing games. Stick to an I-Phone if that's what you're after.

Some of the other applications on the phone can be very useful though. Obviously you have the expected favourites such as Notepad, Stopwatch, and Calculator. Yet there was a new app included that I had never seen before. Documents to Go is an app that keeps digital copies of any important notes or leaflets that I need to use on a regular basis. All I do is email myself a copy in an appropriate format, and download it from my phone.

Sadly I was very disappointed with one extremely important application. The calendar is surprisingly hard to use for a phone designed for business purposes. The calendar comes with the option of four different display types. Daily gives you a run down of the entire 24 hours for the day which causes a lot of scrolling to see what's happening later. Weekly is the same, but spread into seven columns making it even harder to read. Monthly was the best option for me, but came with the drawback of only telling you that something is planned, not what is planned. Finally Agenda lists everything in one column that you will ever have planned. The default setting is for it to tell you about all of your free time too, but if you adjust the settings it works as a nice way of keeping an eye on your schedule. Sadly you will always need to keep switching between options which wastes quite a bit of time when recording my work schedule.

- Problems -

As I said at the start the Blackberry Curve did give me certain problems that I never anticipated. Doing some research I have realised that it is not just my phone, but a problem with the model in general. Essentially the phone can experience memory problems at worrying intervals. Frequently I will find the phone slowing down while I am browsing something, and at times it will need to shut down an app before it has finished loading it. This is only a minor quibble as reopening the app will solve that problem straight away. Sadly every now and then the whole unit will freeze up. The trackpad will stop registering, and the buttons become unresponsive. When this happens you have to take the battery out and let the unit reset. This is a pain for two annoying reasons. The first is that the cover is insanely difficult to remove without breaking, and the second is that it takes an awful long time to load up once switched off.

There are certain other minor irritations such as the fact that it is difficult to clean between the small keys whenever they get something stuck on them. This can make them a little unresponsive, but isn't generally a problem if you keep it clean. I also hate how quiet the alarm seems to be, and have had to keep my older phone around as an alarm clock.

- Conclusion -

The Blackberry Curve 9320 is a nice phone, but is far from the best phone I have ever used. The overall design suits me perfectly, and some of the apps are extremely useful. It is not a phone for gamers, but anyone needing a business phone could do much worse. Just be prepared for some annoying glitches every now and then.

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Go for the iPhone

I have finally got rid of this awful piece of technology THANK GOODNESS (swapped it for the 100% better iPhone).

Firstly I must say that this will not be the most technological review, just a review for people who like me aren't fussed on the insides of the phone but how it works practically.

First of all the positives:The keyboardIt is set out just like a computer keyboard with the QWERTY lay out which means for many of us who don't look to type that touch typing is an option. Also with the separate buttons there are less spelling mistakes and embarrassing auto-correct moments.

BBMAllows for free communication with all the positives of an IM. Including emoticons.

LED lightThe light that flashes when you have a notification that is usually red, you can get an app on blackberry that allows it to change colour so your contacts can have a different flashing light which I loved and do admittedly miss.

Negatives:The internet is slow and things that you expect nowdays like Facebook is not good.Freezes ALOTHard to navigate at first, takes a while to get used to the formatBattery life is lowCharger breaks easy.Charger heats up to a dangerous temperature (LARGEST CAUSE OF HOUSE FIRES IN 2011)Dirt gets trapped in the buttons and they stick

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A good phone...with some bad points!

I first had a Blackberry mobile phone for Christmas last year. I loved it as it was so much more up-to-date than my old phone. I consider myself to be more of a 'computer' person rather than a 'phone' person, and so I was really pleased that my new phone was like a Blackberry. Unfortunately, (and carelessly) - one day whilst out shopping, I had my Blackberry and a bottle of water in my bag - the water leaked all over my phone and...killed it!! L

Being skint...that was the last thing I needed!! Yet, I couldn't live without my Blackberry, and so off I went to Carphone Warehouse for a new phone. I was hoping to have the same phone again, although they didn't have it in stock and said that the 'nearest' one to the one I had was this one; Blackberry Curve 9320 Smartphone which I paid £120 for.

The phone is very smart to look at. It's black and silver and very 'up-to-date' looking. It has a professional and an expensive look. I love showing it off. It is quite 'slim' and small enough to fit in the pocket of your jeans. The keyboard is a bit squashed, but the screen is large and clear; easy to see. You can also 'zoom' in to see websites better which is good. The phone is very light. It does scratch (the back of it) very easily which is a shame. Although you can buy special plastic / rubber covers for them - make sure that they are for the right model. I tried to use the ones I had for my old blackberry (which is the same size etc) and yet the cover was covering the camera and other things, so I took it off. I have dropped the phone once or twice and it has survived...up until now! It hasn't switched itself off like a lot of phones I have had in the past have done (switiching themselves off when I dropped them, meaning that all my photos,messages etc were lost)

The phone switches on quite quickly, and so you are away to go in no time. When switching the phone off, it gives you the option of turning it off (I think a bit like stand by) or completely turning it off - if you have set your alarm clock on it won't go off if you turn the phone of completely.

The time and day and date feature on the homepage which is great for me as I am one of these people who always wants to know what the time is, but never wear a watch. It's also good to check quickly what the date is. The amount of signal and battery power is also displayed on the home screen. The phone picks up signal easily and I always seem to be 'in signal' which is great.

The icons are all on the 'homepage' and so you do not have to go searching under different menu categories to find what you are looking for. All you need to do is scroll up or down. It also has a 'favourites' and 'frequent' menu which shows the icons you go on the most - making them easier to find.

To be honest, there are so many features on this phone, that I haven't come across them all. I tend to stick to the basics though. I use the text messaging feature to text people who don't have BBM Chat (more on this later). I like the fact that on the text message feature - you can see the message before (and loads of others) so that you can refer back to what the person who has texted you may have said in the text. This is also good if you can't remember a date or similar detail someone texted you last week for example - you don't have to go through all of your messages, you just find the person under your messages, scroll up and see the whole conversation. This is also great for when...you know those certain people who sometimes text back 'yes' or 'don't know' and don't explain what they mean, you can look back to the previous messages to find out what they are on about. My only concern about this is that, say you have been 'bitching about someone', and they might say 'can I see your phone' - they would be able to see your conversation. I'm sure you can delete the conversation just like a normal text message, although I always think, what if it hasn't deleted the whole conversation.

I use to alarm clock every morning and find it to be very trustworthy. It always goes off when I tell it too. So it's very reliable. One thing which is annoying about is that - say the alarm goes off - I hit 'snooze' by accident and rather than 'dismiss' (its very easy to hit the wrong button with the silly scroller) - I then get up and go for a shower, if I have hit the wrong button it will go on and on (waking everyone else up). Then again, I suppose it is good if you do happen to fall back to sleep, as it will continue to ring and ring.

I sometimes use the calendar, although not very often. I may start fiddling with it if I am bored, putting in certain events I have coming up (which it will remind me about). Although I mainly use a proper calendar on the wall as opposed to this one. The calendar is good for example if someone says 'can you do the 20th' and then I can go on here and see what day it is or vice versa. So that aspect of it is useful. The calendar also has different 'view' options. For example you can 'view day' and it will show all of times for that day. Or you could 'view week' or 'view month'. I definitely use 'view month' the most, and this I find to be very useful.

I find the calendar useful - I mainly use it to work out what my wages for that week will be. Or if I am in shop to sometimes 'tot up' what the total is to check I have enough money etc.

I use Facebook and Twitter a lot. It helps me to keep up to date with all that's going on even if I am not by a computer. Also, all my notifications, messages from Twitter and Facebook are sent through to my phone. I sometimes use this rather than texting to save money, especially if the message I want to send is not urgent.

I don't tend to listen to music on this phone as I am either at home and have the computer, in the car (where I have Cds or the radio) or at work where we don't listen to music. I don't use the instant messaging (MSN, Yahoo etc) as no one I know uses that anymore, and so I tend to stick to the BBM chat which is just as good, and very fast and has all the features like MSN.

There is a 'sat nav' like thing on this phone. It was automatically switched on when I first had this phone - I actually had to look on the internet to find out how to switch it off). Basically it automatically updates your social networking sites on your whereabouts. For example it will say 'Donna has checked in at....'. I work in a restaurant - and it wasn't until having had the phone for a few weeks and learning about this feature and seeing 'all the places I had checked in' - it had been checking me in at work. So when I went on this feature it had all times and dates of when I had checked in at work (naming the place and address and everything). I had also been to visit a friend and it said that I had checked in at the house across the road from her, even though I had only driven past in the car. I think that this is a very dangerous feature and do not think that it should be 'switched on' when you receive the phone. I didn't know about it until I saw on face book that I had checked in somewhere. So if you buy this phone, I would definitely recommend switching this feature off straight away.

To make a phone call you need to press the call button first and then type in the number. I find that phone calls are always very clear and when speaking on the phone, it feels as though the person is right next to you, as the line is so clear. There is also a 'loudspeaker' option which I sometimes use, and the quality of the phone call is just as good.

One thing which I absolutely hate about this phone is it's 'poor battery'. The phone takes forever to charge. My old Blackberry would charge from 'empty' to 'full' battery within around 40 minutes. This one takes around 3 hours, and even takes over an hour when the battery isn't even flat and has only gone down a little bit. The battery wears down really quickly - just by being on. For example the other day, I charged it fully, switched it on and sent (and received) two messages and the battery went down to ¾ full straight away. This for me is quite worrying, because say I am out for the day (shopping or something) I have to travel an hour there and an hour back and like to keep my phone on the whole time in case someone needs to contact me and yet I want to switch it off to save the battery so in case I break down on the way home. So the battery is a huge problem for me. You can adjust your settings so that it uses less battery power when a certain percent of battery is remaining. For example, one day to see if it made any difference - so I put 'reduce battery power' when batter is 70% or less, but it still didn't make a difference. It's supposed to reduce lighting on the screen etc. things which should save battery power. I didn't notice a difference though.

I love that the phone has 'BBM Chat'. Remember MSN? (the chat where you could talk to your friends on the internet)- well BBM is similar to that except it is a 'phone thing'. You can only chat to other BBM users. Whilst the chat is free - you do need the internet to be able to use it. I have to pay £5 a month for internet which is annoying when I already pay £10 top up a month as part of the 'Orange Dolphin Rewards Package' which gives me 300 free text messages and free internet a month. So I don't really understand why I have to pay a separate £5 for the internet - when I should already get it free with the 'Dolphin Package'.

I love the BBM feature though. Messages are 'instant' and you can see when the message has been received by the other phone as it will display a 'D' by your message. When the other person has read it, a 'R' will show by your message. This is useful, especially if you are desperate to contact someone, as you can see if they have read it. When you have a BBM message, your phone will make a sound and flash red and it will have a 'red star' by the BBM icon.

The phone has a QWERTY keyboard (like a computer keyboard and not like a normal phone keyboard). At first, I thought that this was great as I didn't have to press 'number 1' three times to get a 'C', but now I think it is a pain as there are many buttons which are very close together. It's very easy to 'press' the wrong button. I can text without looking on a normal phone, and so I am disappointed that I can't do the same with this keyboard. I also have quite chubby fingers and so I am always pressing the wrong buttons. Come to think of it, I think people with 'skinny fingers' would have problems with this keyboard too, as the keys are very small and my finger tips are bigger than them. Another disadvantage is that with my old (normal) mobile phones, I could text with one hand. But because there are so many keys on here, I always have to use two hands which is a shame, especially if I have something in my other hand.

In order to 'move around' - there is a scroller button on the keyboard. Sometimes this gets stuck and won't move which is annoying as it means that sometimes I can't use the phone for a few seconds. It does eventually come back, but I don't think it should 'get stuck' in the first place - especially as I have only have this phone for around 8 weeks - it was doing it as soon as I had it.

The internet is very fast which is great as I am big internet user. My old Blackberry used to take forever to load and so it was frustrating. This phone is very fast though. For example, a few weeks ago, we were on the way to a restaurant (which is located in the middle of nowhere). We got lost and didn't have a contact number. So I went on my phone, went on their website and got the telephone number within around 30 seconds - so that was impressive.

The phone is very fiddly and I often find it quite difficult to find what I am looking for as there as so many options - this is also made difficult by the 'silly' scroller which either whizzes around too fast or gets stuck. The phone is also 'opposite' how other phones work in some ways. For example, with most phones, you type in the number and then press call. Whereas with this phone you have to press the 'call' button and then type in the number, which was confusing at first, as I couldn't understand why 'letters' were coming up instead of numbers'.

One thing which I think is fantastic about this phone is its camera. It's brilliant and takes really good clear pictures. It's not like other mobile phone cameras I have had, where the pictures are blurry. The pictures taken with this camera are very clear and of high quality. I am forever taking photos with this phone as it is so quick and easy. The phone stores loads of photos - I am not sure how many in total it stores, although I have well over 500 pictures on mine which is great.

My Blackberry is linked up to my other accounts (email address, face book, twitter) and so I can quickly click on the 'face book' or 'twitter' page, and because I am logged on it will take me straight to my account. I can also update my statuses on the social networking sites quickly. Also, I love the I can take a picture and click on 'send to' (and choose face book, twitter etc) and within seconds it will be uploaded onto whichever account (face book or twitter) I have chosen. This is great for me, because when I used to take photos on my digital camera - it would take hours to upload them on the computer, and then more hours again to add them on to face book. So to be able to upload my photos within seconds as opposed to hours is a huge improvement for me.

If like me, you are one of those people who are forever checking their phone, just to see if anyone has texted you, then you will be pleased to know that the phone will flash a colour when someone has texted/face booked/tweeted you. This is good because it means you do not have to keep checking your phone. I get really excited when I see my phone flash. I think that this feature actually helps me concentrate better in college. Before I would be constantly checking my phone to see if 'so n so' had texted back, whereas now, the flashing will instantly catch my attention. You can also change the colour of the flash to each person. For example, red may be your best friend and blue may be your boyfriend etc.

The phone has great memory - I can store loads of photos (probably have around 50 stored on my phone at the moment) - without a memory card. My last phone would only store 5 picture without a memory card.

Despite the negative points I have stated, I do like this phone and the positives definitely outweigh the negatives. I wouldn't recommend this as a 'first phone' or as phone for an elderly person as it is very, very technical, and not as 'straight forward' as a normal phone. I like to think of myself as a technical person and yet even I struggle with this phone at times.

Thanks for reading!September 2012Xdonzx / xd-o-n-z-x

Comments

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A great smartphone to get you started

I bought this phone recently on contract because my old phone was starting to break down. Having never used a smartphone before, I was a little nervous about venturing out, and decided that the qwerty keyboard was more my style rather than the touch screen.

I have not been disappointed by this phone. It has a very easy to use qwerty keypad, designated BBM (Blackberry messenger) button, camera side key, volume control keys, and much more.

Despite having read poor reviews about the screen quality, I have found it to be really good and it does not look pixelated at all. However, as the camera is 3.2mp, those who are used to taking high quality snaps may be a little disheartened by this. As someone who used to have a phone with a 5mp camera, it took me a while to commit myself to this phone. But all the other features make it worth it.

All the keys on the kaypad are at a good distance away from each other to ensure that you don't press the wrong key. Those new to qwerty keypads will find that you text a little slow at first because of the way you have to press the capitalise key to get capitals, and then the 'alt' key to get symbols. But after about a week or so, I'm texting at the same rate as I did on a normal phone, if not quicker.

One of my favourite features of this phone is the flashing LED light at the top of the Blackberry. In most of my previous phones, if someone had sent a text, my screen would light up for a second and that would be it. Whereas with this phone, the LED light will keep flashing red for a certain number of minutes after a text has come in. This makes it so much easier to keep track of things. It also flashes when you get a phone call, facebook message, email etc. I would advise that you download one of the LED light apps in order to get more than just the default red light. I have different colours for different types of messages.

The sound quality during phonecalls is pretty good, much better than in previous phones. Nice and crisp.

Phone security is good, with the option of both a pin and a phone/keypad lock to stop people from snooping.

The screen of the phone gets dusty pretty quickly though. I use a screen protector on mine and it took me ages to stick it on because dust was so attracted to it. The back of the phone has a pretty glossy finish. Looks very nice but will also scratch easily so I have a phone cover on mine.

Email and BBM is pretty straightforward to set up. If you have trouble, their website is useful for helping you out. They pretty much have an online manual to help you with your new purchase.

Battery life is really good, which was one of the more important deciding factors for me before making the purchase.

This is a fairly new Blackberry but it is also a 'budget Blackberry' to introduce newbies to the brand. So it's great as a first smartphone. The features and quality will not match up to some of the others in the range, but I think this is a brilliant phone.